JWG

There's an elephant in the room

June 15th, 2008

We saw elephants in many places. In Amboseli Park (in Kenya at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro) there is a herd of elephants that has been extensively studied. This trio was walking along not too far away with two passengers on the mother.

One night when we came back from contra dancing we were alerted to the presence of an elephant right near the rooms. At this lodge (Ngorongoro Serena Lodge) there is a corridor in back of the rooms which overlook the crater. A pit and wall separates the corridor from the grounds and there was an elephant right next to the wall - perhaps 12 feet from us. It was dark but someone had a flashlight so we could see him and he was huge with very large tusks. Soon he left. He'd cruised along the wall - behind our room there was a tree that he'd knocked down. They do warn you at these lodges to not walk around at night alone and there are security people available.

Four more elephant pictures follow here including a head closeup (note the eyelashes) and a pile.